Jauhn Etienne Villaruel

This photo illustration created on January 7, 2025, in Washington, DC, shows an image of Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, and an image of the Meta logo.  Drew Angerer, AFP

Article (news)

Agence France-Presse

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1752799464499173649164122420250107150136_6555bcb774f8e9d574b8b773dba7d8a21aed2b900a4e57190a85ed6830bd7559.webp" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">This photo illustration created on January 7, 2025, in Washington, DC, shows an image of Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, and an image of the Meta logo.  Drew Angerer, AFP</span></span></span></div><p>Washington, United States — Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg and other company board members settled a shareholder lawsuit on Thursday concerning decisions made in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/business/2024/2/1/facebook-the-social-network-old-timer-turns-20-1056">Facebook, the social network old-timer, turns 20</a></div><p>A trial over the long-running case had just begun on Wednesday, with defendants accused of overpaying the US government in 2019 when they engineered a $5 billion settlement for alleged privacy violations in the scandal.</p><p>Sources familiar with the matter confirmed the settlement to AFP, without providing details.</p><p>A spokesman for Meta, the parent company of Facebook, declined Facebook, the social network old-timer, turns 20o comment. Lawyers for the defendants and shareholders didn&#x27;t immediately return requests for comment.</p><p>The settlement comes the same day that Marc Andreessen, one of Silicon Valley&#x27;s most influential venture capitalists and a Meta board member, was scheduled to take the stand.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/business/08/28/22/facebook-agrees-to-settle-cambridge-analytica-privacy-suit">Facebook agrees to settle Cambridge Analytica privacy suit</a></div><p>Zuckerberg himself was expected in the Wilmington, Delaware courtroom on Monday.</p><p>Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel and former Meta top executive Sheryl Sandberg -- both former board members -- were also expected to face questioning in the court.</p><p>Cambridge Analytica was a political consulting firm that was found to have improperly accessed personal data from millions of Facebook users for targeted political advertising, particularly during the 2016 US election and Brexit referendum.</p><p>The scandal thrust Facebook and Zuckerberg in particular into a political firestorm, leading to major regulatory changes and public scrutiny of tech companies&#x27; data practices.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/1/10/meta-s-fact-check-pivot-to-hit-orgs-in-ph-global-south-worst-experts-1549">Meta’s fact-check pivot to hit orgs in PH, ‘Global South’ worst — experts</a></div><p>The shareholders in the lawsuit alleged that the board members conspired to pay more to the US government in exchange for ensuring that Zuckerberg would not be named personally for wrongdoing in the settlement.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>HIGH-PROFILE CASE</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>Longtime observers of the company were hoping that the trial would expose inside details of how Zuckerberg and the Facebook executives handled the scandal.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/technology/2025/6/17/rise-in-harmful-content-since-meta-policy-rollbacks-survey-1337">Rise in &#x27;harmful content&#x27; since Meta policy rollbacks: survey</a></div><p>&quot;This settlement may bring relief to the parties involved, but it&#x27;s a missed opportunity for public accountability,&quot; said Jason Kint, the head of Digital Content Next, a trade group for content providers.</p><p>He worried that Meta &quot;has successfully remade the &#x27;Cambridge Analytica&#x27; scandal about a few bad actors rather than an unraveling of its entire business model of surveillance capitalism and the reciprocal, unbridled sharing of personal data.&quot;</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/business/2024/7/25/what-you-need-to-know-about-meta-s-open-source-ai-1248">What you need to know about Meta&#x27;s open-source AI</a></div><p>Zuckerberg was under huge pressure at the time from US and European lawmakers amid widespread allegations that Russia and other bad actors were weaponizing Facebook to sow chaos around major elections in the West.</p><p>The multi-faceted case also alleged insider trading at the time of the events, with board members to be questioned about the timing of their share sales before the scandal erupted.</p><p>The high-profile case was expected to bring further attention to Delaware, the state that many US companies choose for incorporation due to its highly specialized courts.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/technology/2025/4/8/house-panel-urges-meta-to-take-responsibility-for-false-harmful-content-2156">House panel urges Meta to take responsibility for false, harmful content</a></div><p>The trial was presided over and to be decided by Kathaleen McCormick, the same judge who last year rejected Elon Musk&#x27;s multi-billion pay package at Tesla.</p><p>Tesla has since chosen to reincorporate in Texas and reports said that Meta was also considering a different state to register its business empire</p><div><strong>—By Alex Pigman, Agence France-Presse</strong></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO<span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UVlW58-zr4I?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span></strong></div>

<p>Cambridge Analytica was a political consulting firm that was found to have improperly accessed personal data from millions of Facebook users for targeted political advertising,</p>

Cambridge Analytica was a political consulting firm that was found to have improperly accessed personal data from millions of Facebook users for targeted political advertising,

Zuckerberg settles lawsuit over Cambridge Analytica scandal

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Zuckerberg settles lawsuit over Cambridge Analytica scandal

Agence France-Presse

Published July 18, 2025 08:50 AM PHT

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